Negative Blade HQ Experience

[BladeHQ]

Dknight16 I am horrified with how our customer service agent treated you and talked about Hinderer's quality knives. We recently hired on a bunch of new phone agents because of high call volumes, and obviously there was something missed in training. I sincerely apologize for how you were treated by our employee. Person B's behavior was unacceptable, and we are taking corrective measures to ensure this never happens to any Blade HQ customer again.


It is my belief that customers only buy good feelings and solutions to problems. As you said, in the end we did provide a solution for the problem with UPS in the form of a full refund, but you were left with anything but a good feeling after your interaction with us. My late reply to your email did not help the matter either.


I agree with @TOMBSTONE, "that was a horrible story of customer service". We will be using this situation in further training of our customer service team as this is a perfect example of what NOT to do.


As a frequent online customer, myself, I would completely understand if you never wanted to deal with Blade HQ again. If you do wish to give us a second chance, please let me know and I would be happy to assist in helping you with your future purchase as a further apology for the poor treatment you received from us.


Deepest regards,

Tom C.

Customer Service Manager

 

[katanas]

Due to the BladeHQ response I did not see, "never mind".

 

[HappyDaddy]

Dknight16 I am horrified with how our customer service agent treated you and talked about Hinderer's quality knives. We recently hired on a bunch of new phone agents because of high call volumes, and obviously there was something missed in training. I sincerely apologize for how you were treated by our employee. Person B's behavior was unacceptable, and we are taking corrective measures to ensure this never happens to any Blade HQ customer again.


It is my belief that customers only buy good feelings and solutions to problems. As you said, in the end we did provide a solution for the problem with UPS in the form of a full refund, but you were left with anything but a good feeling after your interaction with us. My late reply to your email did not help the matter either.


I agree with @TOMBSTONE, "that was a horrible story of customer service". We will be using this situation in further training of our customer service team as this is a perfect example of what NOT to do.


As a frequent online customer, myself, I would completely understand if you never wanted to deal with Blade HQ again. If you do wish to give us a second chance, please let me know and I would be happy to assist in helping you with your future purchase as a further apology for the poor treatment you received from us.


Deepest regards,

Tom C.

Customer Service Manager

FWIW - That’s good enough for me to put you back on the “approved” list. Well done.

 

[stuff_things]

Suppose they're probably busy getting ready for Blade Show?

Possibly, but that doesn't justify essentially talking s**t about a paying customer trying to resolve a real world issue. I'm sure the OP felt like his character was under attack and I completely understand why he's upset; there's no reason for this and I find it disturbing. BHQ needs to take this seriously and make it right. Also, there's no reason to take 3 days to ship a $300 order, whether it's June or January. I buy things well under that that ship same day from other places.

 

[bikerector]

Possibly, but that doesn't justify essentially talking s**t about a paying customer trying to resolve a real world issue. I'm sure the OP felt like his character was under attack and I completely understand why he's upset; there's no reason for this and I find it disturbing. BHQ needs to take this seriously and make it right. Also, there's no reason to take 3 days to ship a $300 order, whether it's June or January. I buy things well under that that ship same day from other places.

We're talking about 2 different things. In what you quoted, I was specifically commenting on why it could take BladeHQ so long to respond to this thread. I was not commenting on the original interaction between the OP and the poor CS rep from BHQ. Of course getting ready for blade doesn't justify the CS rep being a shithead. When that interaction might have occurred, it probably wasn't even applicable as the interaction happened before the week of Blade Show, if I've loosely pieced the timeline together.

 

[Peter Hartwig]

. Also, there's no reason to take 3 days to ship a $300 order, whether it's June or January. I buy things well under that that ship same day from other places.

I don't know the reasons for it being slower than someone else (presume there is a reason), but I really don't care as long as it does get shipped and arrives safely. If it doesn't require me to put any work or effort to make it happen, I am fine. Like most here I have plenty of knives to play with in the meantime.
Just my opinion & others may differ
Hopefully BHQ will get the CS problem sorted out. I appreciated their comments and concern, but in the end what matters is if they get it fixed or not. I am still willing to buy for now & accept their apology.

 

[jmh33]

I ordered a Mora Eldris on May 24th and received on May 28th with a holiday in there.. It don't get no better!! Ordered a few knives in the past and NEVER had any issues.. They are in my top 3 dealers in my eyes!! Just Sayin!!
John

 

[Dknight16]

Dknight16 I am horrified with how our customer service agent treated you and talked about Hinderer's quality knives. We recently hired on a bunch of new phone agents because of high call volumes, and obviously there was something missed in training. I sincerely apologize for how you were treated by our employee. Person B's behavior was unacceptable, and we are taking corrective measures to ensure this never happens to any Blade HQ customer again.


It is my belief that customers only buy good feelings and solutions to problems. As you said, in the end we did provide a solution for the problem with UPS in the form of a full refund, but you were left with anything but a good feeling after your interaction with us. My late reply to your email did not help the matter either.


I agree with @TOMBSTONE, "that was a horrible story of customer service". We will be using this situation in further training of our customer service team as this is a perfect example of what NOT to do.


As a frequent online customer, myself, I would completely understand if you never wanted to deal with Blade HQ again. If you do wish to give us a second chance, please let me know and I would be happy to assist in helping you with your future purchase as a further apology for the poor treatment you received from us.


Deepest regards,

Tom C.

Customer Service Manager

I appreciate your reply here as well as the additional detail provided in your accompanying e-mail response.

 

[palonej]

Just an FYI.
Ordered couple flashlights last week, on Thursday.
They are arriving today. Chose free shipping.
No complaints........again.

 

[ScooterG]

Just an FYI.
Ordered couple flashlights last week, on Thursday.
They are arriving today. Chose free shipping.
No complaints........again.

I ordered an expensive knife on Wednesday with Priority shipping and it’s also arriving today. (Utah->CA)

 

[Petunia D. Feeble]

I ordered an expensive knife on Wednesday with Priority shipping and it’s also arriving today. (Utah->CA)

IveI had one issue with BHQ, but was made whole. My CS experience wasn't fantastic; nothing like the OPs story here though. I order from other sites because they tend to ship faster, but would still buy from BHQ if they were the only trusted source available.


They're a larger company than a lot of the other online retailers. The occasional bad employee due to turnover or growth is understandable. Some people shouldn't work in a call center. I'm one of those people and apparently so is the B character that the OP dealt with. The good news is that management does seem to take those issues seriously and make efforts to correct them.

 

[Mactical]

I have bought a lot of knives recently from BHQ with no problems. I have also returned one without any issues.

 

[jbmonkey]

OP sounds like a really bad employee more than a bad company. you did have many years and over 7500 bucks worth of good purchases with them.

that said I see bad service everywhere anymore. people/many employees just dont seem to care anymore. it's a shame. which is ironic as they want and demand good service when theyre a customer but refuse to give it when theyre on the job.

on the flip side and I'm not talking about you op.......just in general. I also see lots of really bad customers too anymore. want everything for nothing. unreasonable and unfair and refuse to allow mistakes to be fixed or give any room for mistake to happen etc. run to Yelp and Facebook etc and hammer away on the company. it's a mess anymore......

sorry ya got stuck on this one. its frustrating and ridiculous.....

 

[Petunia D. Feeble]

I ordered a Kizer Mini Begleiter on Tuesday morning at 8:38 AM. It took nearly 24 hours for BladeHQ to generate a shipping label and another 24 hours for it to actually make it to a post office.

I'm aware that this is immediately post Blade Show and that the knives actually experienced a delay in shipping, they were expected last Friday, so I'm not terribly upset. It's not exactly abnormal from BHQ though.

48 hours to ship in a market where same day shipping is pretty standard on AM orders... This is why I typically buy elsewhere BladeHQ .

 

[trackstar55]

Decide where you want to spend your money.

I placed an Internet order for a Hinderer XM-18 Harpoon Spanto in the stonewashed DLC finish. I paid extra for UPS 2 day air shipping. Unfortunately, my shipment was immediately lost. After 5 days I contacted UPS. UPS said they could not investigate as they never took custody of the knife. Their advice was to contact the shipper: Blade HQ.

So I called them. Customer service person B told me they have a 7 day policy before they consider a package lost. I said ok. I waited 8 days and called them again. Customer service person B was a little impatient as I tried to tell my story again. He was only interested in my order & tracking number. Ok. When he called it up, he said UPS had just updated my shipping status. That made no sense to me. I still saw nothing other than a shipping label being created. I realized he was looking at the page date and time his tracking inquiry was processed. Literally seconds ago. I tried to explain that to him. He said, no, that was just my opinion and I would need to wait another 7 days. I again insisted there was no update and if he refreshed the page he would see he was mistaken. Instead, he asked me if I would “stop talking” so he could investigate on his end. Then he placed me on hold.

But he didn’t place me on hold. So I was treated to listening to him complain to another Blade HQ employee about me, the loudmouth know-it-all he had on the phone line. He said I wouldn’t listen, was only interested in constantly giving my “opinion”, and would not stop talking. Just “blah, blah, blah” (his actual words). Then he started bad-mouthing Hinderer Knives: too many models, variation, and parts - and that there were plenty of better knives for a lot less money. Once he realized they did not have a replacement knife for me, he started talking about ways to avoid giving me a refund by redirecting me to something else.

When he turned his attention back to me I didn’t say anything about hearing all of the venom he spewed. I was more interested in getting my considerable money back (although I did mention I owned 14 Hinderers - some purchased from Blade HQ). After the refund hit my card 3 days later I sent an email to the Blade HQ manager relaying my negative experience. Sadly, no response at all.

I’m an experienced knife guy enjoying the golden age of EDC folders. I’ve spent more than $7,500 at Blade HQ over the last 7 years. But I think I am done with Blade HQ as there are dealers who treat their customers (and knife makers) with some modicum of respect. Actually a lot more. USA Made Blade, DLT Trading, and Knife Center come to mind.

Next stop is likely a talk with the Hinderer Facebook Group. They too should consider where they spend their money. Rick might be interested too.

You need to call in and speak with a manger or exec running the company. Anytime I have an issue like yours, I’ve gotten the best results going to the top and not writing emails. Phone calls. If local, I go in and meet in person a manager or top executive of the place. Personal interaction I think gets you more than letters, emails. I do support you coming here. I hope someone up top reads this thread. Only way things can get fixed is if people at the top realize what’s going on. If they don’t know, how can they fix it?

 

[Dknight16]

You need to call in and speak with a manger or exec running the company. Anytime I have an issue like yours, I’ve gotten the best results going to the top and not writing emails. Phone calls. If local, I go in and meet in person a manager or top executive of the place. Personal interaction I think gets you more than letters, emails. I do support you coming here. I hope someone up top reads this thread. Only way things can get fixed is if people at the top realize what’s going on. If they don’t know, how can they fix it?

They can’t really fix it for me, but this BF post did get me a response (both in this thread and an email).

 

[King of the Cheese]

These are people paid to answer phones for a living... not that there is anything wrong with that, but it’s tough to find good labor these days at that salary level. Some idiots are bound to slip through the cracks. The true measure is “what is the norm”. If it becomes a common occurrence, then BHQ has some issues. If one jaggoff wants to act like refunds come out of their personal bank account, they probably won’t amount to much professionally the rest of their life.

 

[slyraven]

As easy as it is to blame the cs agent as being one who slipped through the cracks, never forget that its still the company's responsibility to ensure their agents are acting properly, as well as paying them fair enough to motivate them to do well. Not sure what bladehq pays but as a general rule, you want to ensure they are well paid, have good benefits, and that the office culture is not toxic.

Saying that, sometime it is impossible to catch all the bad seeds.

 

[katanas]

as a general rule, you want to ensure they are well paid, have good benefits, and that the office culture is not toxic.

How nice. I doubt you have run a business. Wonderful working conditions are what killed American industry. Of course we would all like that to be the case, it just isn't feasible all the time. If your business is competing in a world economy, something has to give. I don't have the answer, just the experience. I believe I will catch flak for this but it is what it is and I take no pleasure in it.

 

[slyraven]

How nice. I doubt you have run a business. Wonderful working conditions are what killed American industry. Of course we would all like that to be the case, it just isn't feasible all the time. If your business is competing in a world economy, something has to give. I don't have the answer, just the experience. I believe I will catch flak for this but it is what it is and I take no pleasure in it.

Well, you are incorrect. Not only have I ran businesses, I have also worked for businesses in lead roles. While, yes, it can be hard to pay people what they are worth sometimes, my experience shows that its a very worthwhile expense, even more so than any branding, as CS Reps are the front line of that branding. All the commercials and billboards in the world won't help if your cs reps are underpayed and treated like garbage.

Look at mcdonalds vs in and out, two worlds difference in how you are treated at the counter.


There is also a huge difference between foreign cs and well paid cs from the native countries. Yes you can outsource such things quite cheaply, but you will then not have very knowledgeable staff, nor a staff that cares about your company or culture.

To the toxic part, this should not be hard at all. What the OP described is a toxic environment..the "Us" vs "them" mentality, like customers are the enemy..and that toxicity can kill a business. You do NOT want any reps arguing or talking bad about customers, even " troublesome" customers. Simply incorporate this into your office culture and it should take care of itself.


Now, how is it that American industry was killed by wonderful and fair working conditions? That makes no sense. What killed American industry is two things: wall street and China.

Wallstreet forces corporations to cut costs at every turn, to maximize profits over running the company soundly.

China gave greedy corporations and wallstreet slave labor to create their products so cheap that you couldn't compete with them. Ya had to join em.